The Asia-Pacific side boasts four OneAsia tournament winners with five titles between them, as well as a pair of Japanese stars to showcase the burgeoning relationship with the Japan Golf Tour Organisation.
Team China will be named in coming days.
The tournament takes place at CTS Tycoon Golf Club in Shenzhen from December 13-15 and pits 12 Asia-Pacific players against a China national team over three days of matchplay competition. The visitors won the inaugural 2011 tournament 12 1/2 - 11 1/2, and retained the title last year with a 14 1/2 - 9 1/2 victory.
Australian golfing legend Peter Thomson, a five-time winner of Britain’s Open Championship, will captain the Asia-Pacific team for a third time and has again hand-picked OneAsia regular Scott Laycock as his playing deputy.
“I am honoured to be involved in these matches and it still provides a thrill to be head of this team,” said Thomson.
“I expect Team China will show an improvement in their play and therefore it will be harder for the Asia-Pacific to beat them.”
The rest of the team is selected via a combination of Order of Merit ranking and nationality in order to make the squad as geographically representative as possible.
Leading the charge for the visitors is Australian Matthew Griffin, who currently tops the OneAsia Order of Merit title race following an excellent season capped by victory at the SK Telecom Open.
Another powerful addition to the squad is Korean Choi Ho-sung, winner of this year’s Enjoy Jakarta Indonesia PGA Championship, and countryman Kim Dae-sub, the 2012 Kolon Korea Open champion.
The Japan Tour representatives are Kazuhiro Yamashita, currently 21st on their Order of Merit, and Masamichi Uehira, ranked 56th.
From New Zealand, former European and U.S. PGA Tour member Michael Long will be making his third appearance in the tournament, joined by debutant Gareth Paddison, who has had an excellent season on OneAsia in 2013 and is currently 17th on the money list.
South-East Asia’s contribution to the squad comes in the form of Thai heavyweight Thaworn Wiratchant, winner of the Indonesian Open on OneAsia in 2011, and Rory Hie, the home favorite he beat into joint second place in that tournament.
The squad is rounded off by Singapore’s Choo Tze-huang, making his second appearance, and Erica Mina, who has a foot either side of the Pacific by virtue of being America-born to parents of Philippine extraction. Mina won OneAsia’s inaugural California Q-School in January.
Thomson, 84, said he had not tired of being involved in competitive golf despite the years rolling by and was delighted to be part of the growth of the game in China.
“Golf has been my life and for many years I was involved in Asian golf as a player, so it is wonderful to still be a part of the growing scene in China,” he said.
“I am keen to win as always, and as long as I can make a contribution, I’ll be up for it.”
Vice-captain Laycock said he expected Team China to come out with all guns blazing in December.
“They won’t be happy having lost twice in a row so I think we’ll see a very determined effort,” he said.
“I’m honoured to be part of Peter Thomson’s team and I think the side we have will be very competitive. It should be a great contest.”
Following are brief profiles of the Asia-pacific players:
| Scott Laycock (Australia) Vice-captain Born 15 September 1971 1.80m, 92kg From Melbourne, Australia Turned professional 1992 | Laycock earned his PGA Tour card through Q-School in 2002 and broke into the world top 100 the following year. He won the Hugo Boss Foursomes on the Asian Tour and also won the Bridgestone Open on the Japan Tour in 2002. He has two wins on the Australasian Tour including the Surf Coast Knockout in 2011. Laycock has played in three Majors — the Open Championship in 2002 and 2007, and the PGA Championship in 2002. He has recorded an amazing 15 holes-in-one in his career. Laycock has been vice-captain at both previous Dongfeng Nissan Cup tournaments. |
| Matthew Griffin (Australia) Born 26 July 1983 1.79m, 74kg From Melbourne, Australia Turned professional 2005 | Griffin scored his breakthrough win on OneAsia in 2012 at the Charity High1 Resort Open and followed that up with victory this year in the weather-shortened SK Telecom Open on Jeju Island. His first professional win was the exotic South Pacific Open Golf Championship in Noumea, New Caledonia in 2011. One of the most consistent performers on OneAsia this year, Griffin is a natural left hander who plays right-handed, but can still be seen giving a left-handed fist-pump when he drains a crucial putt. Coached by Denis McDade, he is also a big supporter of the Melbourne Football Club AFL team. This is his first Dongfeng Nissan Cup appearance. |
| Choi Ho-sung (Korea) Born 23 September 1973 1.72m, 77kg From Gyeongbuk, South Korea Turned profesional 2001 | Choi scored his first victory on OneAsia at this year’s Enjoy Jakarta Indonesia PGA Championship, earning his place on the Japan Tour as well because the tournament was co-sanctioned by the Japan Golf Tour Organisation. A stylish dresser with a distinctive haircut and idiosyncratic swing, Choi has been a very steady performer throughout his career, but has only won twice on the Korean domestic tour — in 2008 and 2011. |
| Kim Dae-sub (Korea) Born 30 June 1981 1.73m, 72 kg From Seoul, South Korea Turned profesional 2001 | Kim burst onto the golf scene as a 16-year-old amateur in 1998 when he stunned a classy professional field to claim the Korean Open. He proved that was no fluke by winning the tournament again three years later, turning professional immediately afterwards. He won six times on the Korea domestic tour until putting his career on hold in 2010 in order to complete the compulsory two-years of military service that all Korean men must perform, and stunned everyone in 2012 by winning again, just six weeks after being discharged. He followed that up with a magnificent third Korean Open title — his first OneAsia crown — in October 2012. |
| Kazuhiro Yamashita (Japan) Born 5 November 1973 1.70 m, 70 kg From Osaka prefecture, Japan Turned professional 1998 | Yamashita started playing golf relatively late, aged 15, inspired by his idol Jumbo Ozaki. After 10 years of grinding on Japan’s Challenge Tour, he finished eighth on the money list in 2007 to earn his full card and he has remained on the Japan Tour ever since. Cheered on by his wife Yumiko, eldest son Taisei (aged five), and toddler daughter Haruka, Yamashita finished 12th at this year’s Thailand Open and 32nd at the Enjoy Jakarta Indonesia PGA Championship — the two tournaments co-sanctioned by OneAsia and the Japan Golf Tour Organisation. |
| Masamichi Uehira (Japan) Born 27 December 1977 1.58 m, 58 kg From Fukuoka prefecture, Japan Turned professional 2001 | Although one of the smallest players on tour, Uehira has a big personality honed by a steely determination. Encouraged by his father, he started playing at high school and was a very successful university amateur. He always wanted to be a professional, however, and after graduating in 2001 joined the paid ranks, winning four titles on the Challenge Tour. He won their Order of Merit in 2010 to progress to the top table, where he is a consistent performer. He is married with a two-year-old daughter. |
| Michael Long (New Zealand) Born 27 August 1968 1.88m, 88 kg From Cromwell, New Zealand Turned professional 1990 | The lanky New Zealander seemed destined for a great career after getting into the world top 100 in 1997 and spending two years on the European Tour, but he broke his neck in a boogie-board accident in 1999 and needed a long period of recovery. He spent two years on the U.S. PGA Tour (2002, 2005) although failed to keep his card on both occasions. He won twice on the highly competitive Nationwide Tour and four times in Australia, where he is now based. Long’s best finish on OneAsia was joint runner-up after a playoff at the 2011 Nanshan China Masters. |
| Gareth Paddison (New Zealand) Born 13 May 1980 1.83 metres, 74kg From Wellington, New Zealand Turned professional 2001 | As an amateur Paddison won the New Zealand Amateur Stroke Play Championship and the Queensland Amateur Championship in 1999 before venturing overseas to claim the Canadian Amateur Championship in 2001. He also represented New Zealand at the Eisenhower Trophy in 2000. Paddison was named Norman Von Nida PGA Tour of Australasia Rookie of the Year in 2002 after he won the Scenic Circle Hotels Golf Classic. He also played on the European Challenge Tour that year where he finished third at the Izki Challenge de España. In 2004 he won the Victorian Open in Australia and then claimed his first win on the Challenge Tour in 2007 at the Open des Volcans. His father, Gary, played for the New Zealand national soccer team in the 1970s. He is now based in Perth, Australia. |
| Thaworn Wiratchant (Thailand) Born 28 December 1966 1.73 m, 68kg From Nakhon Prathorn, Thailand Turned professional 1987 | Thaworn won the Indonesia Open on OneAsia in 2011, adding to the 16 titles he had already won on the Asian Tour in a career that also saw him twice win their Order of Merit (2005, 2012). He has one of the most distinctive swings in golf, with a loopy action that sees his hands directly over his head at the height of his swing — but that only disguises a deadly touch, particularly around the greens. Outside of golf, he loves snooker, soccer and fast cars. |
| Rory Hie (Indonesia) Born 1 September 1988 1.84m 80 kg From Jakarta, Indonesia Turned professional 2008 | The best golfer to emerge from Indonesia, Hie had a brilliant amateur career during which he was ranked in the top ten in the world. Although still seeking his breakthrough win on a major tour, Hie has won at home and in China and is a regular top-ten performer on OneAsia. He made a noteworthy start to his OneAsia career season in 2012, finishing second twice. |
| Eric Mina (USA) Born 27 October 1988 1.67m, 65kg From Los Angeles, California Turned professional 2012 | Mina’s life turned upside-down in January when he won OneAsia’s first-ever California Q-School, booking his place in all the tour’s events. He struggled at first, however, and failed to make a cut until the mid-season break since when he has been in very good form, twice leading after first rounds. One of the smallest players on tour, he nevertheless generates enormous power and has excellent control of his ball flight. Mina’s mother is Filipina and his father an American-born Filipino. |
| Choo Tze-huang (Singapore) Born 14 February 1987 1.85m, 85kg From Singapore Turned professional 2011 | Choo is one of Southeast Asia’s most exciting prospects having won individual honours in the region’s top amateur competitions, the Putra Cup, in 2011 as well as helping Singapore to the team title. He also achieved the feat of winning both individual and team honours in the Putra Cup in 2006, and also claimed the team title in 2008. He started playing as a six-year-old and finished a golf scholarship at the University of Washington. |
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